Andrew Bayley

JTR mounts, automatic transmission, 1 and 3/4 primary's and 3 inch collectors. Yes they work, but it's a royal P.I.T.A. to fit them in there. Click here if Freeservers is being lame Driver's side looking down. Click here if Freeservers is being lame Passenger side close up. Click here if Freeservers is being lame Ground Clearance I have a few more pictures. Drop me an e-mail if you would like them. -Andy

Sun Tachs are fine. In the years before all the aftermarket gauge craze, SunPro was all that people had. They've been around the longest and will work just as good as any Autometer or VDO. I had one in my old 2.3L Ranger for years and never had any problems. Even had a neat little shift light built into it. Of course, it wasn't very impressive seeing the tach only go up to 4200 RPM. But that was the motor's fault, not Sun Pro's. -Andy

I can't agree more with what Mike said. A good exhaust shop is golden! I know it sounds like a long time down the road, but it will most likely take at least that much time to find a decent shop. Heck, I've been looking for about 5 years now for someone to do my Z As for the "kit" you ordered, was this just the motor mounts, or did it have other things as well? You need to figure out how you are going to close the hood. Doesn't sound like a big deal now, but when ready to drive it for the first time and nothing to hold the hood closed... it can be slightly annoying. Also, radiator mounts are another item that is often overlooked until the last moment. Mike already hit on the other two big ticket items (exhaust and driveshaft), I would also suggest that you look into a good shifter for whatever transmission you decide to use. Either Automatic or Manual, it will be money well spent. -Andy

You see this stuff all the time in the Offshore boating industry. When people start throwing this much money around like its spare change, even the holiest of holy will have at least one impure thought. It really chaps my ass to hear about people being taken advantage by any type of "performance house". However, it sounds like this guy set himself up for it. "Hi, my name is 'Dumb Sucker'. I want the fastest Viper out there, don't know schit about cars, and have a disposable income." I'm sorry, but he won't get much sympathy from me... even though he was royally screwed (so we read). I guess this just firms up the statement: If you wan something done right... We all know the rest. That's why we're all reading Hybrid Z here.

Good observation Tom, A few years ago, a friend of mine wanted to upgrade to a 3" exhaust. Since his 2.5" Super Turbo sounded great, he was simply going to upgrade to a three inch Super Turbo. Much to our surprise, the 3" ST was identical to the 2.5" only with 3" inlet/outlets welded on. Buyer beware! -Andy

Thanks for the plug Russ. Aaron, feel free to send me an email of your, or anyone you know, 1/4 mile times (1/8 as well). Always looking to add new people. -Andy

A '91 700R4 should be fine... assuming it's the larger spline (30, I think) unit out of a V8. In 1984, the 700R4 was upgraded, but only in the V8 vehicles. All the V6-s still used the smaller input shafts. As for difference between the 4L60E and 700R4, it's a wash. I've had a few problems in my Impala (4L60E) with WOT upshifts, but I think that is more related to inadequate line pressure. Something like that would be related to the mechanics of the system, not the electronics. If you have a full working 94 setup, I would start with that. -Andy

Oh yeah, I've experienced how well an empty bottle works. I tried out my LT1 dry system with an empty bottle (grabbed the wrong one from the garage). "Hmmm... I thought there would be mnore of a kick than that." Nitrous is cheap and easy, but it's also the biggest pain in the butt as far as power adders go. Refilling the bottle after a few runs is quite annoying. I guess I'm glad I only run the 125hp shot. I can get about 10 - 12 runs (depending on the bottle pressure) before the tank starts getting low. -Andy

If you don't know much about motors... you sure will after rebuilding your 350 when a rod shoots out the block after a 250hp shot. Always educational! -Andy

Another wickedly fast Texan! "Naaaws"z350 Got your email earlier this morning. I should have your times posted on my site by the end of the day. Would love to see a picture of the car. If you drop me an email, I'll post the picture next to you times. -Andy

weld it x 2 (Hey! Check out my number of posts!!! )

Two tenths?!?!? Uh oh! I think I know where this is heading... While I don't have much experience with switching between 400's and 350's, I do know that alot of powerboaters lose big power when simply switching to a "slightly" larger gear set. It could also be the straight cut gears that are robbing power, but I'd think that the friction loss would be significant on it's own. I've seen 80 mph drops drop down to the mid 70's just by switching the lower units to those with bigger gears. That's a loss of power to the drive unit. Just run a direct drive and be done with it! Just my $0.02 -Andy

James, I ran a set 0f '77 Z28 heads on my 350 for a few years. Not sure how similar they are to the Monte' heads, but I can't imagine much (if any) difference. First off, these are smog heads. They aren't the worse smog heads (like the early 80's), but they are smogged none the less. Do not put any money into these heads. While a port job, bigger valves and other misc clean up work will yeild results, keep the money and put a down payment on a nice set of Aluminum heads. I know it's a big chunk of change, but it's the best bang for the buck (except for nitrous, but those an entirely different monster). My old '77 Z28 heads had a very large 76cc combustion chamber. With the OEM dished pistons, compression is somewhere around 8:1 However, I was able to run 13.0's on the motor with these heads and consistantly spray 12.0's (a few high 11's). So they will work better than most people will credit them for. It's just that the after market Aluminum heads will work that much better! -Andy

Rick, Welcome to the group as well. Do a search for 700R4 and/or 2004R and I'm sure you will come across this subject in many different posts. Without going into too many details, I had a TH-350 in my first Z, carried it over to my second Z, swapped it out for a 700R4 after I drove over a piece of fallen bridge, then swore I would never go back to another transmission without overdrive. Seriously, the overdrive makes the car enjoyable at all speeds. While a 3.5 rear end gear doesn't sound like much, remember that most of us are spinning smaller 14 and 15 inch tires. This reduces gearing even more than most people realize. The only drawback to the overdrive transmissions that I can find, is the price of aftermarket torque converters. $150 for a 2500 stall TH-350 vs. $500 for a 2500 stall 700-R4. That's the price you pay for overdrive I guess. -Andy

Do you have hub caps for a '72 Pinto Hatchback? Ooooooh, Mini Truckin' Magazine!!! (Kevin Smith fans will get it) Thanks to Pete and all the other administrators for keeping this place in check. -Andy

Hot Rod magazine had a short little paragraph about them. Even the old-scool Iron heads are amused by this concept... No Picture? No Problem. Click here! -Andy

Everything sounds good with the Air Gap, but I can't believe that the air/fuel charge at WOT 6000rpm would be hanging around long enough to soak up the excess heat from the intake manifold. I used to have problems with cooking the carb on my motor before I put in the heat separtating carb gasket. Even then, the only time I had any trouble was when the car sat in traffic for long periods of time. The heat would eventually "boil" the fuel in the bowls. Once I got up to speed, the new (cooler) fuel would replace the hot gas. Also, the newer fuel would never be in the bowls long enough at speed to absorb all the heat. Hot gas mixture sucks, I'll agree with that. But I'm still a little skeptical that this Air Gap is all it's hyped up to be. I can't imagine that big of a different. Just my $0.02 -Andy

Emissions...? Smog...? What are these foreign words that I am hearing? You gotta love the motor city. Any vehicle older than 1 day, no longer needs to be tested for anything. As for which Z to get, I highly recommend a 75-78 280Z. Yes, it is heavier than a 240Z... but that's what the V8 is for. It's a lot easier (and more fun) to build more HP than remove weight. Some of the major advantages a 280Z has over the 240 and 260's are: [*] More space between frame rails. A 280Z will actually have about 1 inch more width for a radiator between the frame rails. I found this out when I swapped out the radiator from my 280Z to my 260Z [*] Wider trans tunnel. A wider tunnel means less (if any) hammering. [*] All 280Z's came with the R200 differential. A must with over 300 rwhp. [*] Segregated EFI wiring harness. This is a MAJOR plus in my book. All the engine wiring is contained in one neat little harness that ends in the drivers footwell. My 260Z had all the engine wires wired into the main harness. It was a very painfull process sorting out all that crap. IMHO, the 280Z was just a better engineered car. Just like any other run of a model, the last generations get all the squeak, rattle and bump fixes. Now if it's 100% pure speed you are after... start looking for those 1970 or early 1971 240Z's. -Andy

Oh no, I would never do anything illegal! Those pictures are from a professional driver on a closed private road. Especially that second one. I would never do a burnout like that on a Middle School driveway (say, Brighton Middle School in Brighton MI) while a friend would be vidoe taping the whole thing. Never I tell you, never! Scotty, I didn't realize you had a few extra R200's. Hang on to them. They are getting harder and harder to find around MI. Let me know if you need anything from Orlando as well. I'm sure Scottie has quite the stock pile that his wife would love to see disappear. -Andy

Burnout Picture 1 Burnout Picture 2 ...I don't think Scotty will mind Scotty's Burnout

Here is a picture of my passenger side S&S header. Click here if no picture is shown It's a little lower than what I had setup with the block huggers, but I still don't ever scrape the header. Now the transmission pan on the other hand... -Andy

- ROCK OVER LONDON! ROCK ON CHICAGO! - WHEATIES, BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS!!! YES!!! Another Wesley Willis fan!!! He's quite the local legend around Detroit. Anyway, I believe BLKMGK has a subtle Z hood on his Z. I'm looking at getting one real soon here. I'll post pictures when the big day arrives. -Andy

"TURBO, TURBO." NITROUS, NITROUS (only losers call it cheating!!!)

"I'm telling ya, one of these days I'm just gonna get a V8 and a Muncie Rock Crusher tranny so that I can stay inside my Z car more than under the Z car!! " Forget it Norm, it's just as bad under a V8. Go ahead and ask me how many times I went to the track last year. Zilch!!! Hopefully that will all be resolved really soon. Getting the transmission back hopefully over the holidays. It's 10 seconds or bust come this summer!!! Glad to hear it wasn't a head gasket... sorry to hear it was a ring land. How did she run at the strip with the upped compression? I've currently got you down as 12.88 at 105. Not sure if you've bested that yet. Let me know if you have. -Andy

Ahhh... the old Caddy 500! I've been around the block a few times with the old 500. The ones to look out for are out of an either 70 or 71 Cadillac. Those were the ones that made 500 ft*lbs of torque. From there, the numbers started to fall off. However, the Chevette that Hot Rod built up (project: Bad Seed) had a 75 short block with 71 heads. This yeilded a sompression ratio of something like 12.5:1 on iron heads. Cool things can be done with the old Caddy motors, but it's always going to be more expensive and difficult to find, aftermarket parts. Also, the selection of go fast parts are inferior to the Caddy's Cousin, the GM big block. A generic aluminum intake manifold (nothing Hi-Po) set me back over $300. Headers... good luck! I don't me to be shooting you down too bad, but I investigated dropping my 500 into an 18 foot jet boat and it was just nickle and dime-ing me to death. It became financially obvious why the GM small / big blocks were the engine of choice for power builders. $$$ -Andy